An introduction to the Old City

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The Old City and the City of David - this is where the capital of the Jewish kingdoms was located, and where many of the great empires of the ancient world put down roots. This is captured in this introductory circular walk in the Old City which will view defensive city walls built by King Hezekiah during First Temple times and by Suleiman the Magnificent in the Ottoman period, remains of the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina that replaced Herodian Jerusalem, the Crusader facade of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and buildings connected to the German Kaiser's visit to Jerusalem as an ally of the Ottomans. ﻿

Distance: Just over 9½ Km.

Time: Allow at least 3½ hours, and about half a day if visiting museums and churches.

Difficulty: An easy walk, but not wheelchair friendly because of the many steps, although the walk can be easily adapted for a stroller. ﻿

Starting point: The Jaffa Gate of the Old City. There are WC's by the entrance to the northern section of the Ramparts Walk.

﻿Public transport: ﻿There are bus stops close to the Jaffa Gate. The closest stop on the light rail is “City Hall”, which is about a 7-minute walk to the Jaffa Gate. ﻿

Parking: Karta Parking at 6 Yitzhak Kariv St.

WHO WAS KING HEZEKIAH?

The name King Hezekiah comes up a lot when touring the Old City and City of David. ﻿﻿This is because this king had a marked impact not only on the history of Judea, but also on the physical layout of Jerusalem.﻿

Hezekiah was the 13th﻿﻿ king of the kingdom of Judah, and reigned from about 715 to 686 BCE. The Book of Kings looks favorably on his reign, in that he abolished idol worship throughout his kingdom and strengthened the institution of the Temple at the expense of private altars (II Kings 18:1).

The Assyrian empire was then dominant in the Near East and Hezekiah was witness to the destruction of the Northern Israelite Kingdom and the exile of the northern tribes by the Assyrian King Sargon II in about 720 BCE. Many Jews from the Northern Kingdom managed to escape exile, and they settled in Jerusalem and other cities in Judea, which experienced a large increase in population.

Judea had become the most powerful country between Assyria and Egypt, and when the Assyrian king Sargon died, Hezekiah saw this as being an opportune time to throw off the Assyrian yoke. This was strongly opposed by the prophet Isaiah, who appreciated that Jerusalem’s isolation, being in the mountain ridge and distant from﻿ the main highway, accounted for its safety; but his advice was ignored. ﻿

Aware that he might soon have to face the full strength of the Assyrian empire, Hezekiah strengthened the defenses of Jerusalem. Its Western Hill, including what is now called Mount Zion,﻿ contained two new residential areas outside the city walls and these areas were enclosed. The northern approach to the ﻿city had always been its weakest link, since it ﻿lacked any natural topographical defenses, and Hezekiah built a new and strengthened northern city wall close to the existing one. The “Broad Wall” viewed on this walk is a small section of this new northern defensive wall.﻿

He also ensured that the population of Jerusalem would have sufficient water during a time of siege by digging an underground tunnel from the Gihon Spring in the Kidron valley to the Siloam Pool inside the city walls. The Gihon Spring had been fortified since the time of the Canaanites, but was still a potential area of weakness. Following the tunnel's construction, the Kidron Valley﻿ approach to the﻿ Gihon Spring was completely blocked off, thus depriving an attacking army access to water.

As Isaiah had predicted, Hezekiah’s allies, including Egypt, were unable to come to his aid when Assyria attacked Judea. Some deserted the alliance and paid tribute to Sargon’s son and successor Sennacherib, while others, including the Egyptians, were defeated in battle.

Sennacherib destroyed 46 Judean cities and their surrounding villages, including the well-fortified city of Lachish. By 701 BCE the city of Jerusalem was under siege. Despite his opposition to Hezekiah’s campaign, Isaiah prophesied that the city would not be conquered and that Sennacherib would die. “Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there .....” (Isaiah 37:33)

This is indeed what happened:

"And it was that very night, an angel of God went out and struck down 185,000 of the Assyrian camp. The rest arose in the morning and behold- they were all dead corpses." (II Kings 19:35)

Jerusalem was saved, although much of Hezekiah’s kingdom lay in ruins. Assyrian sources describe Hezekiah as remaining a vassal of the Assyrians and paying heavy tribute, but they make no mention of Assyria entering Jerusalem. Hezekiah died a few years after this and was succeeded by his son Menasseh. As Isaiah had also foretold, Sennacherib would soon die, being murdered by his sons.

The walk:

1. First part of the walk:

Before entering Jaffa Gate, look at the magnificent wall in front of you that surrounds the Old City and that was built by Suleiman the Magnificent during the Ottoman period.

Jerusalem fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1517 CE, and the sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, began constructing this city wall in 1535, possibly because of concern that Christian Europe would mount another Crusade to capture Jerusalem; although such a Crusade never materialized.﻿ The city wall had been in ruins during the previous rule of the Mamlukes, and Suleiman built his new wall on the remains of walls built during the early Muslim and Crusader periods, although the foundations of some of the western sections of his city wall are much older than this. Mount Zion and the City of David had been outside the city walls since the early Muslim period and were not included in Sulemein's wall.

The wall was constructed in a medieval style with towers, turrets and portholes, and was meant to be impregnable.The floral and geometric patterns on the wall and gates were probably meant to enhance the spiritual significance of the city.

Enter the Old City via the Jaffa Gate .

Jaffa Gate is so named because the road to and from Jaffa was from it.Jaffa was an important port for the Holy Land from ancient times﻿. The Arabic sign above the gate credits Suleiman with beginning the construction of the gate in the Islamic year 945, or 1538 in the Gregorian calendar.﻿ Unlike the other eight gates into the city, Jaffa Gate is not part of the façade of the city wall, but faces north in the direction of Jaffa Rd. The gate is called Bab al-Khalil in Arabic, which means “Gate of the Friend”, since the road from here also leads to Hebron. Abraham is is buried in Hebron﻿ and is regarded by Moslems as being the beloved of God.

Note the defensive features of the gate. The porthole above you as you enter the gate allowed defenders to pour noxious fluids onto an enemy that had breached the gate. The gate is also in the form of an L, which would have slowed an enemy’s entry into the city.

Nowadays, cars have a more direct way of entering the city than making this L-turn, and they have the German Kaiser Wilhelm II to thank for this. Politics can make strange bedfellows. The Turks (Muslims) and Germans (Lutherans) were allies, and In 1898 the Kaiser visited Jerusalem. No effort was spared by the Turks to make his visit an impressionable one. This section of the wall was knocked down and part of the moat surrounding the Citadel was filled in so that the Kaiser could enter the city on horseback wearing his tall helmet. (By contrast, General Allenby entered Jaffa Gate humbly on foot following the Turks surrender of the city to the British during World War I).﻿ How far the moat previously extended into the square can be seen from a shallow channel of paving stones in the square.

﻿Crossing Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Square, the following are worth noting:

(i). Two Turkish-style gravestones in a small, enclosed area just before the Tourist Information Center. A popular legend holds that they are the graves of two construction engineers for the wall who were beheaded by Suleiman. Suleiman was displeased that Mount Zion and the Tomb of David had been left outside the city wall. He might also have been worried that they would build a similarly effective wall for someone else! Nevertheless, these engineers were buried close to the walls they had built in appreciation of their work.

(ii). On the left of the square, two stores beyond Latin Patriarchate St., is a very beautiful alley with hints of its former class. The alley is entered through an arch with the word "Versavee" above it. In the 1800's, the East New Imperial Hotel here was regarded as the classy hotel of Jerusalem.

As you proceed along the square, a tower can be seen on your right at the north-east corner of the Citadel .

As you enter the city through the Jaffa Gate, you are standing on top of a hill with a valley on either side. Outside the city and beneath the entrance to Jaffa Gate is the beginning of the Hinnom Valley and inside the city is the gradual descent to the Tyropoeon or Central Valley. The Hasmonean John Hyrcanus I was the first to build a fortress on top of this hill. The fortress was part of the city wall and it provided protection to the westward expansion of the city and the gate into the city.﻿ Herod considerably improved the fortress. He also erected a large and magnificent palace close to the fortress and adjacent to the western city wal﻿l in what is now the Armenian Quarter.

There are no remains of Herod's palace, although one of the towers of his fortress is still standing within the Tower of David complex. This fortress originally had three towers, one of which he named after his dead and beloved brother Phasael, another after Mariamme his former wife whom he had put to death, and the Hippicus tower was probably named after a friend who was commander of the cavalry. The Romans destroyed Herod's palace when they conquered the city, but they left the towers standing as a monument to their prowess in capturing the city.

The tower still standing is probably the Phasael Tower, and only the﻿ foundations of the two other towers still remain. The lower stones of this remaining tower are Herodian, as can be see from their beveled edges. The upper building stones look different and are medieval additions. The tower is now just a bit more than half the size it was at the time of Herod, so that in its time it was a massive construction. The upper part of the towers then had lavish living quarters containing pools and baths.

﻿The fortress was restored during the Byzantine period, severely damaged during the Persian invasion of 614 CE, and rebuilt again by the Mamlukes.﻿ The moat around the Citadel was added by the Crusaders. The rest of the Citadel is Ottoman and was built by Suleiman based on its previous Crusader design. The minaret was added by the Ottomans in the 16thcentury. The Citadel remained a Turkish military installation until the time of the British conquest.﻿

It now very appropriately contains a museum showing the history of Jerusalem - appropriate because this fortress has played a significant part in its history.

﻿Proceed straight ahead to the Arab shuk along David St.

2. The next part of the walk visits the Christian Quarter and the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. If you wish to shorten the walk, continue along David St. and pick up the walk at the next section:

Take the first street on your left﻿, Christian Quarter St. Turn right onto St. Helena Rd., which is signposted as being in the direction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Follow the curve of the street past the Mosque of Omar , go under the arch, and then down the steps to the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher .

What is a mosque doing in the Christian Quarter and so close to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher? Tradition has it that when the Moslem Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab entered Jerusalem after the surrender of the Byzantines, the Patriarch offered him the right to pray in the church. He refused, explaining that if he did so he would need to confiscate the church and turn it into a mosque. Instead, he prayed outside the church and the “Mosque of Omar” was later built on the spot where he prayed. The present mosque dates to the 15th century, the 12th century mosque being destroyed in an earthquake.

According to Christian tradition, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection.﻿It is the most sacred site for all Christian denominations and sects, except for Protestants who dispute the church being at the correct location. Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, was at that time outside the walls of Jerusalem. After the Bar Kochba Revolt, the Roman Emperor Hadrian razed the city and rebuilt it as a Roman city called Aelia Capitolina. He also built a temple at this site dedicated to the goddess Venus, possibly to cover up the cave in which Jesus had been buried and thereby prevent early Christians from visiting it.

During the rule of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great and his adoption of Christianity, Christianity became legalized in the Roman Empire instead of being a persecuted religion. Constantine subsidized a visit to Aelia Capitolina by﻿ his mother Helena, who was a devote Christian. She was determined to find the location of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. Digging underneath Hadrian's temple, Helena's workmen discovered Jesus’ tomb and the three crosses on which Jesus and the two criminals had been crucified. On Constantine's orders﻿, shrines were built above these, and Constantine﻿ also built a church for this complex. This would become the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.﻿ The church subsequently suffered damage from earthquake, fire and Arab destruction. Repairs were made, but when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, they found the church in need of extensive renovations. They therefore rebuilt the church and moved the entrance to its western side where it is today.

The two gateways you are now looking at and that are part of the facade of the church are therefore of Crusader origin. You will also see a small wooden ladder under the second window to the right, which has been there for over 200 years. How so? The Muslims blocked the entranceway on the right when they captured the city from the Crusaders, and they only permitted the church to open on special holidays. The ladder by the window was used to bring food to the monks locked inside. The Church has been managed by six churches of Christianity﻿ since the decree of the Ottoman Sultan Osman III in the 18th century﻿ and they are still unable to agree what should be done with the ladder!

After viewing the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and possibly entering it, exit the courtyard through the small archway on the right side of the wall ahead.

Continue straight ahead for a short distance, and then turn right under an elaborate arch into Suq Aftimos, the Aftimos Market.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate﻿ built up this area at the beginning of the 1900’s as part of their Muristan Complex. Muristan is Persian/Turkish for hospital, and it was called this because a Crusader church and hospital for pilgrims run by the Knights Hospitaller, a Christian military order, was located here.It is now a typical Old City market and restaurant area.

Continue to the elaborate fountain .

The Turks erected this fountain in 1898 in honor of the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm, and it is located on the path the Kaiser took from Jaffa Gate to the nearby site of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. The Kaiser laid the cornerstone for that church.

Just before the fountain take the first left and exit this area by another arch onto Muristan Rd.Turn right and pass through vaults above which is the sign of an eagle. This was the symbol of the German Empire, and these vaults may have been part of a construction the Kaiser intended building. This is obviously as far as he got. Exit Muristan Rd. by turning left onto David St.

3. Continuation of the walk to the Jewish Quarter:

Just before the metal roof over David St. becomes a vaulted one, turn right into Habad St. for a rooftop view of the Old City .After passing a few stores you will see a grey metal stairway on the left that leads to the rooftops. From this vantage point, you will have a wonderful view of the buildings on the Temple Mount and all four quarters of the Old City.Climb up the steps and platforms to the highest point for the best view.

As you stand here, behind you and to your left as you face the Temple Mount,﻿ are the spires and domes of the churches of the Christian Quarter. In front of you and on your left are the roofs of the Muslim Quarter. In front of you and to the right is the Jewish Quarter with its newer buildings﻿, and behind you to the right are the houses of the Armenian Quarter.

When did these four quarters come into being? They were already established in the Mamluke period, were in place during the Ottoman period, and were officially recognized by the British during their Mandate. ﻿Nevertheless, these neighborhoods have always been mixed. There are mosques in the Christian quarter, and churches and much of the Via Dolorosa are in the Muslim quarter. Jews have also lived in the Moslem and Christian quarters. Walking in the Moslem Quarter, you may well notice Israeli flags fluttering.

In the distance on the Mount Olives Range you can see three projections. To the far left is the tower of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. A bit further to the right is the Augusta Victoria Complex, which was built by the German Kaiser as a hostel and sanatorium for German pilgrims. It is﻿ now an Arab hospital. To the right of this, in the village of A-Tur, you can see the spire of the Russian Church of the Ascension where Christians believe that Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection. To the right of this is the Jewish Mount of Olives cemetery and on its top the Seven Arches Hotel.

Return to David St. and turn right.This road soon turns to the right, and then turns almost immediately to the left where it becomes Chain Gate St.

Take the next alleyway/street on the right (the street after Jewish Quarter Rd.), which is Plugat Hakotel St.Follow the turns of this alleyway and soon before you, protected by black metal railings, is the “Broad Wall” .

This wall was built by King Hezekiah in the late 8thcentury BCE in anticipation of an attack by the Assyrian king Sennacherib – an attack which did materialize. From the map displayed on the retaining wall behind the Broad Wall, it can be appreciated that Hezekiah’s wall protected the northernmost expansion of Jerusalem, which by that time had expanded to the middle of today’s Jewish Quarter.﻿ Throughout its history, the northern approach to Jerusalem has been its most vulnerable, as the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys﻿ provide natural protection for the rest of the city.

The city wall was broad (7 meters in this section) and tall (8 meters).The wall is curved because of the topography of the valley.﻿To your right, notice that the Broad Wall cuts through the ruins of a house. To complete the wall, Hezekiah had to demolish some houses, and this house may well be one of the buildings that the prophet Isaiah referred to when he said disapprovingly: “ and you count the houses of Jerusalem and pulled houses down to fortify the wall” (Isaiah 22:10). ﻿

Follow the railings to the right and at the corner turn right. The row of red tiles on the street indicates where the First Temple wall continues underneath the street﻿. Go under the brick arch on the continuation of Plugat Hakotel St. passing the dormitory of Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh. Very soon you will reach a T-junction with Jewish Quarter St. Ahead and just slightly to your right are steps leading down through an open black gate to The Cardo.

The word Cardo in Latin means “heart”, and the Cardo was the heart of the Roman city Aelia Capitolina﻿. Jewish Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans after the Great Revolt of 70 CE. When the Jews revolted again in the Bar Kochba Revolt, the emperor Hadrian obliterated all Jewish vestiges of Jerusalem and rebuilt﻿ it as a Roman city. It was built in a typical Roman grid fashion. The central Cardo was the main marketing thoroughfare and it bisected the city from Damascus Gate in the north to Zion Gate in the south. The southernmost part of The Cardo was completed in the Byzantine period, probably to link up the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the Nea Church, the ruins of which can be seen next to the Jewish Quarter parking lot.﻿

Having no bulldozers, builders in the past built new structures on top of old, so that the levels of streets in Jerusalem progressively rose. Based on the Byzantine Madaba map of Jerusalem (see in a few paragraphs), Israeli archeologists suspected that The Cardo was in this location. They dug down and they found it.

Turn right when you reach the level of the Cardo and you will come to two well-like structures in the center of your path. These are exploratory shafts dug by archeologists. At the bottom of the first shaft is a continuation of the First Temple wall. WithIn the second shaft are First and Second Temple walls.Continue a bit further along the Cardo and on the left are more remains of the First Temple wall and at its side a Hasmonean Second Temple wall. Their continuation underneath the road is indicated by red tiles for the First Temple wall and black tiles for the Hasmonean wall. These walls indicate the northernmost limit of the city in First Temple and early Second Temple Hasmonean times. On top of the walls is a Roman column from the time of the Cardo. We will soon see a lot more these columns. This part of the Cardo was used later by the Crusaders as a market.

Retrace your steps and go along the Cardo now in a southerly direction. There are many quality stores here. Where the stores end, continue ahead under a brick arch to a wider section of the Cardo.

Outdoor malls are not a new invention!﻿From here it is possible to visualize how the Cardo would have looked in Byzantine times. On each side of the road was a walkway at a slightly higher level than the road. Pillars extended the length of the Cardo and supported a roof covered with tiles that provided shade and protection from the rain for pedestrians and shoppers. In a section where the pillars are reasonably intact, a wooden frame has been placed on a few of the pillars to demonstrate how the roof covering would have looked. On your right, notice a very realistic mural of the Cardo of Byzantine times. In the left lower corner is the mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, dressed appropriately for the times, accompanied by his two architects. This joke is rather hollow, though. In Roman and Byzantine times, Jews would not have been allowed to enter the city. On your left are mosaic representations of typical stores of that period.

Go through the passageway ahead to view a replica of the Madaba map on the wall in a small section of the Cardo.

The Madaba map was discovered in Madaba in Jordan in 1884. It was drawn in 6th century Byzantine times as part of a mosaic floor of a church, and on the mosaic was a map of Israel, Jordan, and parts of the Negev. The section containing the map of Jerusalem provides a bird’s eye view of the location of the important Christian institutions in Byzantine Jerusalem, although it is not drawn to scale. (Byzantia is the name given to the eastern part of the Roman Empire that became Christian at the time of the emperor Constantine the Great).

The map is titled in Latin “The Holy City of Jerusalem”. The site of the destroyed Temple is not on the map, since it had no importance to Christianity. In fact, its destruction confirmed the degradation of the Jews and the validity of Christianity. Interestingly, in ancient times, east was upwards, since east was considered the prime direction. (The Magnetic North Pole was not discovered until 1831 by James Clark Ross, a commander in the British Navy). This makes it a bit tricky trying to orientate the buildings in the map.

The Cardo is represented by the central line with pillars on either side. In the center of the map is an upside-side down 3-D representation of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. To the left (i.e. to the north) is the Damascus Gate. A single column can be seen within the Damascus Gate. Damascus Gate is known in Arabic as Bab el Amud (translated as “gate of the column”), and in the Roman period there was a single column just inside the gate. This may well have supported a statue of the Roman emperor. To the far right (south) of the map is the Church of Holy Zion (Hagin Sion Church), which is where the Dormition Abbey is today. At the right-hand (southern) end of the Cardo is the Nea Church. The ruins of this church can be seen today adjacent to the Jewish Quarter parking lot.﻿

Continue through another passage ahead to the open part of the Byzantine Cardo. Exit the Cardo by taking the stairs up to Jerusalem Quarter Rd.

4. To continue this as a circular walk to the Jaffa Gate:

Cross over the Cardo by the walkway on your left and continue ahead to Or Ha-Hayim St. This road becomes St. James St. At its end, turn right onto Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Rd., and this will lead you back to Jaffa Gate.

Nearby places of interest:

The Western Wall: Cross Hurva Square, and at its far left is Tiferet Israel Rd. Continue straight and go down the steps on Ma’alot Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi. This leads to the security check for the Western Wall.

The Herodian Quarter Wohl Archeological Museum is at 1 Ha'Kara'im St:Turn into Karaites St. from Hurva Square and the museum is very shortly on your right.Prior to starting a building project In Israel, an archeological dig is usually carried out if there is any possibility of there being archeological ruins. In this instance, the ruins of upper class mansions and houses belonging to priests from the Herodian period were found.﻿ On completion of the archeological dig, the ruins were preserved and Yeshivat Hakotel was built on top of the ruins. The museum is of interest in demonstrating the considerable wealth of the priestly class at the end of the Second Temple period. The assumption is that these were priestly mansions because of their location, their splendor, and the many ritual baths within the homes. Almost all the floors were covered with mosaics and some can still be seen, as can some stucco paintings on the walls. The exhibits show stone utensils. These were used by the priests because they did not transmit ritual impurity. Notice also the figurines found on location, evidence that idol worship was practiced even within the city. The museum is open Sunday to Thursday 9.00 AM-5.00 PM, and Fridays and festival eves 9.00 AM-1.00 PM. Their phone number is 02-625 5906.

The Temple Instituteis at 40 Misgav Ladach St. off Tiferet Israel Rd. This museum researches into the Jewish Temples of the past and prepares for the Temple of the future. The results of this research are shown here. Vessels and instruments that could be used in a rebuilt Holy Temple are shown, scale models of the Second Temple, the outer altar, the Ark of the Covenant, and oil paintings portraying daily life in the Holy Temple. There is a gift shop specializing in publications, films and educational material about the Temple. The museum is open Sunday to Thursday 9.00 AM–5.00 PM, Friday 9.00 AM–12.00 PM, and is closed Shabbat and Festivals. There is an admission charge. Their telephone number is 02 654 1255.

The Burnt House (Beit Katros) is at 2 Tiferet Israel Rd.This house was burnt down when the Romans destroyed the city in 70 CE. A stone weight was found here with the Aramaic inscription “D’Bar Katros” – which means “belonging to Bar Katros”, and this enabled identification of the owner of the property. The Talmud is not at all flattering about Bar Katros and other families: “….. Woe unto me from the House of Katros, woe unto me from their quills … for they are high priests, their sons are treasurers, their son-in-laws are executives, and their servants beat people with sticks. (Pesachim 57a). The Talmud considered these priests to have abused their positions, an indication of the corruption of the priesthood at that time. Also shown in the museum are the personal effects of a young lady, including the sword that might have killed her. A bone from her arm was also found. This was buried, but there is a photo of how they found it. There is a movie. Tickets can be bought at the door or a combined ticket can be purchased at the Wohl Archeological Museum. The museum is open Sunday to Thursday 9.00 AM-5.00 PM, Friday 9.00 AM-1.00 PM, and is closed Shabbat and holidays. Their phone number is 02 626 5906.

Herod's Citadel displayed in the Second Temple model in the Israel Museum. Herod also built a palace for himself adjacent to the fortress and along the city wall. There are no visible ruins of this palace as it was destroyed by the Romans, but a single tower of his fortress is still standing.

A panaramic view of the Temple Mount and the four quarters of the Old City can be seen from the rooftops by Habad St.

A dashed line﻿ map on this map near the Broad Wall shows the extent of the city wall in First Temple times and also the location of the Broad Wall. This city wall also enclosed the Temple Mount, Mount Zion and the City of David. For orientation, the present Turkish wall is shown with a solid line.

This section of the Cardo was part of the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina﻿ and is a great place for window-shopping and looking for gifts. The Crusaders used it as a market.

With some imagination one can envisage how the Cardo, the main commercial street﻿ of Aelia Capitolina﻿﻿, looked in Roman times.